SOUTHEAST

ARMY UNIFORMS GET FIRST REDESIGN IN TWO DECADES

FORT STEWART, Ga. – Army soldiers are being issued new fatigues with easy-to-use Velcro openings and a redesigned camouflage pattern that can help conceal them as they move rapidly from desert to forest to city in places like Baghdad.

“It might give you the extra second you need, save your life maybe,” Sergeant Marcio Soares said yesterday after trying on the new all-in-one camouflage uniform that is the first major redesign in Army fatigues since 1983.

Sergeant Soares’s unit, the Georgia National Guard’s 48th Infantry Brigade, is the first to be issued the new fatigues as part of a $3.4 billion Army-wide makeover being phased in over the next three years.

The uniform will replace the standard forest camouflage – green, brown, and black – and the desert camouflage – tan, brown, and gray – now used by American troops in Iraq. Twenty-two changes were made to the uniforms, most notably the new camouflage pattern. Instead of bold jigsaw swatches of colors, the new camouflage pattern uses muted shades of desert brown, urban gray, and foliage green broken into one-centimeter segments. Black was eliminated completely because it catches the eye too easily.

– Associated Press

NORTHEAST

FORMER GOP AIDE SENTENCED FOR PHONE-JAMMING

CONCORD, N.H. – The former head of a Republican consulting group was sentenced yesterday to five months in jail for jamming Democratic telephone lines in several New Hampshire cities during the 2002 election.

Allen Raymond, 37, who was president of the Alexandria, Va.-based GOP Marketplace LLC at the time, did not comment as he left the U.S. District Court sentencing. He also was fined $15,600. He had pleaded guilty in June.

Court papers say Mr. Raymond and co-conspirators plotted to jam Democratic lines that voters could call for rides to the polls in Manchester, Nashua, Rochester, and Claremont. A line run by the nonpartisan Manchester firefighters’ union also was jammed.

The blizzard of more than 800 computer-generated calls lasted about 90 minutes on November 5, 2002, as voters decided races for governor, U.S. senator, and hundreds of other offices. State Republicans acknowledged two years ago they hired GOP Marketplace. But then-Republican Chairwoman Jayne Millerick said the company was paid $15,600 for telemarketing services to encourage people to vote Republican, not to jam lines.

– Associated Press

WEST

GUN POSSESSION MAY NET A LIFE SENTENCE

SAN FRANCISCO – A man who went to prison two decades ago for setting his 6-year-old son on fire in a custody dispute was found guilty yesterday of illegally possessing a gun – a conviction that could send him to prison for life.

Charley Charles, who was known as Charles Rothenberg when he burned his son in 1983, said he needed the gun as protection from vigilantes bent on retaliation for the crime against the boy, who grew to adulthood severely disfigured.

Charles, 64, testified that he bought the .38-caliber pistol in 1997 after he was shot at twice, once by a gunman who yelled, “That’s the man who burned his son!” He claimed police at the time said they were too busy to address his complaint. Police found the revolver and ammunition in 2001 while inspecting Charles’s San Francisco apartment after a fire at the complex.

After deliberating for a day, jurors yesterday convicted him of being a felon in possession of a handgun and ammunition. The case was tried under California’s tough three-strikes sentencing law, meaning Charles faces the possibility of life in prison. His lawyer declined comment after yesterday’s verdict.

– Associated Press

MIDWEST

FLAWED WISCONSIN QUARTERS FOUND

MILWAUKEE – Some Wisconsin quarters issued last year are turning out to be worth considerably more than 25 cents. Coin collectors say quarters with two variations in the design of a cornstalk on the back of the coin have been spotted at Tucson, Ariz., and San Antonio.

Rick Snow, who owns Eagle Eye Rare Coins in Tucson, said he started paying $50 each for the quarters when he learned of them.

“As soon as word got out about that, the prices escalated,” Mr. Snow said.

On Monday, he was offering a set of three Wisconsin quarters – the normal one, one with a leaf marking pointed up, and a third with the marking pointed down – for as much as $1,099.

Individual coins with the variations were selling for $500 to $600, depending on condition, Mr. Snow said. The U.S. Mint, which produced 453 million Wisconsin quarters for its state coin series, is trying to determine how the coin differences came about, a spokesman said.

– Associated Press